struction accounted for the major part of building activity. Before June 1946, 34 percent of the year's goal in veterans' housing had been started. Total construction activity is expected to run to about 17 billion dollars this year, or about 3 million dollars more than was estimated last March.

Stabilization of the Economy.-The report emphasized that without price controls, other powers of Government would be inadequate to stabilize the economy in the present abnormal conditions. But if price control is in effect, it can be aided by other fiscal and monetary policies.

The report proposed curtailing Federal expenditures, but said that the principal opportunities for achieving this end were confined to public works projects and military expenditures. Major economies could not come from cutting into expenditures for the legislative, judicial, and non-military executive agencies, because their total budget was only 2 billion dollars, or 6 percent of the total Government payments.

¶ Labor requirements for a record food processing season pose a huge recruiting program for the USES. The 1946 production of crops for canning and freezing is expected to top all records. Reports from commercial processors indicate that plantings marked for packaging exceed acreages set aside in 1945, except for snap beans, cabbage, and beets.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that labor needs for this activity would build up to 437,000 in September. While maximum requirements in most regions are scheduled for September, activities in some regions will reach peak at various times before then. In Region XI the peak time will arrive early in October.

On the whole, labor for food processing is expected to be less stringent this season than last because of the presence of some unemployed in the labor market, the return of veterans, the increased availability of women workers, and curtailed opportunities for other employment. Most areas will get along with local labor, placing emphasis on recruitment of housewives, students, and teachers.

Although adequate staffing for peak needs is anticipated in most States, recruitment difficulties are expected in several areas in California, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.

Putting home folks to work is the keystone of the USES recruitment program. Local offices have been urged to plan recruitment campaigns well in advance and to organize local community committees to aid in publicity and recruitment. Among the proposals for full use of community labor are the temporary release of workers from other industries in emergency periods and the establishment of short work shifts for youth, older workers, housewives, and others not ordinarily in the labor market.

Where sufficient numbers of local workers cannot

be obtained, additional workers will have to be sought from other areas through clearance. Some workers will be supplied as a result of the agreement with the Extension Service whereby foreign workers imported for farm work will be made available to the UŠES.

¶ Once again the stage is being set for public presentation of a special drama of employment of the physically handicapped. October 6-12 will mark the second observance of National Employ the Physically Handicapped Week, with the campaign slogan, "Hire the handicapped-it's good business." As during the first observance of this period, the USES will call upon employers to hire handicapped workers. Headquarters is again preparing a quantity of promotional and educational materials to send to the field. However, major responsibility for carrying out the actual activities of the "Week" rests with local offices.

Among the activities that will back up the observance of this special employment week are selective placement institutes, intensive employer visiting to stress the employability of qualified disabled veterans and other handicapped, and promotion through broadcasting, news columns, and other publicity channels. The USES staffs will also cooperate with agencies, groups, and organizations which undertake to feature the objectives of the special employment drive, whether through meetings, get-togethers, radio broadcasts, exhibits, panel discussions, and the like. Local office veterans employment representatives will solicit the assistance of veterans organizations in all of the week's special activities.

MR.

Veterans Housing and the USES

By WILSON W. WYATT

National Housing Expediter and Administrator,

National Housing Agency

THE VETERANS Emergency Housing Program is one of our most urgent and challenging peacetime obs. Its goal of starting 2,700,000 homes and apartnents for veterans by the end of 1947 calls for the partriotism, effort, initiative, and cooperation by Government agencies that was given to war production. Several Government agencies have important roles o play: The Office of Price Administration makes orice adjustments where price ceilings are major obstacles to production; the Civilian Production Administration grants priorities for equipment needed by materials producers and lends assistance in getting scarce materials; the U. S. Conciliation Service has responsibility for bringing work stoppages to a speedy conclusion; the Apprentice Training Service helps to expand apprenticeship for building trades. The United States Employment Service has been charged with the enormous task of mobilizing the labor resources needed to carry out the program's extensive goals.

Twenty Years of Under-Building

Today's shortage of housing is not a war baby left on our doorstep on VJ-day. It is the result of 20 years of under-building. We needed more and better houses during the depression, but the people who needed them could not afford them. They were living doubled-up with relatives and friends, to help make ends meet. That disguised our housing shortage, leaving us with a phony "surplus." When the war came, and with it better-paying jobs, many people were able to "un-double" and soak up the "surplus." The situation would have hit us with more force then, had it not been obscured again, this time through the removal of 12 million persons from civilian life and the building of about 2 million units of wartime housing.

The housing shortage came out of hiding right after VJ-day, and it's been growing worse ever since. Servicemen who had married during the war, servicemen and war workers who had increased their families, and servicemen who wanted to marry the girls who had waited during the long war years, all began to search for housing-and found their search fruitless. Available housing had shrunk to an alltime low.

How acute is the shortage? Is there any substance to the amazing claim by some that there is no general housing shortage but that the shortage is limited to

only a few communities? Is this housing crisis a "fabricated emergency"? Let's look at the facts.

About 6 months ago 1,200,000 families were living doubled-up with other families. Then the shortage was severe-but today it is critical. By the end of this year, 2,500,000 veterans will be needing homes. Even without reducing the number of doubled-up families we would have to build about 3,000,000 homes and apartments by the end of 1947 just to keep the shortage from getting even more acute. And this figure does not take into account today's 10,500,000 substandard dwellings, which should and can be rehabilitated or replaced, the 200,000 additional dwellings which fall into that class or are destroyed every year, or the housing needs of 400,000 new families created each year.

Our goal of getting 2,700,000 dwelling units under way by the end of 1947 is a compromise between what we need and what we can build. It's a big job. It means starting almost five times as much housing construction in 1946 as in 1945, and even more in 1947. It means getting materials out of war-curtailed industries, helping new plants get on their feet, recruiting hundreds of thousands of workers in a very tight labor market, and cracking many hard-shelled building codes.

But it is not a big job compared to the need. Even when the Veterans Emergency Housing Program is completely successful we will still have almost 2 million families doubled-up with other families at the end of 1947. This is not too big an undertaking for a Nation which the war caught almost flat-footed but which nevertheless wound up with an amazing war production record of $200 billion a year. And it is the least a Nation can do for the men and women it up-rooted and dispatched to the four corners of the world during the war.

This is our program for reaching our housing goal: 1. Stimulating capacity production of conventional building materials, and the necessary additional production of new materials where necessary, through premium payments, price readjustments, granting priorities in obtaining equipment and assistance in getting materials.

2. Supplementing conventional building with increased capacity for prefabrication of housing, including site assembly of prefabricated parts, through guaranteed markets, priorities, and financing aids.

3. Granting priorities for the building of houses selling (with land) for less than $10,000 or renting for less than $80 per month.

4. Channeling the bulk of available building materials into houses selling for $6,000 or less, or renting for $50 per month or less.

5. Curtailing deferrable and nonessential construction, to channel more materials into residential construction.

6. Tripling the January 1946 on-site and off-site residential construction labor force of 650,000 workers by mid-1947.

7. Converting about 200,000 temporary units of barracks and war housing to family dwelling units and transferring them to colleges and localities needing them during the emergency period.

The USES is in a strategic position to help break our two biggest bottlenecks-materials and labor. Materials are flowing much faster than they were last fall-but we will continue to have shortages for the next 2 years. With the authority granted us by the Veterans Emergency Housing Act we are moving forward rapidly with premium payment and guaranteed market plans. Premium payments are being paid to manufacturers of critically needed materials which are produced-over and beyond normal production and for approved necessary new materials which could not be produced profitably before now. Guaranteed markets underwrite the sales of new materials and of prefabricated housing which meet Government standards of durability and livability. These two types of plans are of utmost importance to USES offices. As new plants are opened, closed plants reopened, and extra shifts added, more and more manpower will be needed in every sector of the home building industry-from materials plants to finished homes.

Our present residential construction labor forceboth off-site and on-site-will have to be more than doubled by mid-1947. Our goal of 1,200,000 homes and apartments, started in 1946, alone will require 975,000 workers for on-site housing; all other construction will need 950,000 on-site workers. In 1947 we will need 1 million on-site workers for housing, 1.5 million for all other construction, and about 2.5 million off-site workers. And these figures do not include workers for repairs and maintenance-estimated to run about $5 billion in 1946 and slightly more in 1947. As this is written, the construction labor force totals 1.4 million. We must recruit another 500,000 residential construction workers by September.

The recruitment of these workers, like most jobs in the Veterans Emergency Housing Program, is a local job. That is why we continually say that the backbone of our program is community action. The Government can expedite the flow of materials and manpower, but the main responsibility rests with each community-for it is there that the houses will be built. The national housing shortage is the sum of all local shortages; it will be overcome only by the leadership and initiative shown by each community. To get community action started, we have written to almost 460 mayors of cities with a population of 25,000 and over, asking them to appoint Emergency Housing Committees. We have suggested that these committees be compact, workable units, consisting of representatives from local government (including housing authorities), the building industry, labor, veterans' organizations, civic business groups and public interest groups; also, that subcommittees be formed to determine local emergency housing goals, plan sites for the veterans' housing to be built under the emergency program, study and make recommendations

for revision of local building codes, stimulate rental housing, break local bottlenecks, handle public relations, and supervise the local veterans' housing referral center. Today over 400 such committees have been formed.

While Federal agencies are not usually included as actual members of these community-action committees, local USES offices can render invaluable assistance in their community housing programs. Were they to ask me how this could be done, I should make these 10 suggestions to them:

1. Make known and offer your services to your local Mayor's Emergency Housing Committee

From your vast fund of labor market knowledge you can inform the committee of present and future local labor supply and demand, point out critical danger spots and ways to overcome them. You might also discuss such problems as turn-over, absenteeism, lack of equipment, and other hindrances to the program which you will uncover in your visits to employers. 2. Keep abreast of local needs for on-site and off-site housing construction workers

Just as Emergency Housing Committees must set their local housing goals at the outset, so you will need to set a recruitment goal. But where housing goals will remain fairly constant, employment goals will constantly change as materials loosen up, as the program gets into higher gear, as more nonresidential construction is curtailed.

3. Get the right workers to the right job

This is no less true today that it was during the war. With shortages already developing in some areas and with more in prospect, it is vital that every worker be used at his best capacity. This will also help cut down absenteeism and turn-over-old enemies you will recognize from your wartime days.

4. Recruit actively

You can point out to applicants the present and future opportunities in construction-the fact that this is a minimum program, even though a large one, and that from the impetus provided by the Veterans' Emergency Housing Program residential construction should maintain a high level of employment for years to come. Keep your eyes open for unskilled workers looking for a trade, and workers with skills which can be transferred to construction. The Apprentice Training Service will also be found helpful.

5. Recruit intensively in your own area

During the war USES offices sent millions of workers to far distant areas where they were needed. Today, however, on-site and off-site residential construction. workers are needed almost everywhere and inter-area recruitment will not yield its wartime harvest. Further, we were able to provide wartime shelter for inmigrants during the war, but today we can no longer provide such shelter. Every bit of construction (Continued on p. 23)

1.

Under the Veterans Emergency Housing Program, the USES will carry the burden of keeping the labor force up to the full quota necessary to spell success for that undertaking. Presently, its task is manpower to overcome the bottleneck in building materials which has thrown home-building off schedule. This shortage of materials, however, is well on its way to being overcome. The Government has set in operation two plans to encourage materials production— premium payments to manufacturers of critically needed materials which are produced beyond normal production, and the guaranteed market which underwrites the sale of new materials and of prefabricated housing which meets Government standards. The USES has a specific role to play in these plans. It is counted on to find workers for new or reopened plants for extra shifts, and for replacements.

In addition, the USES has the concurrent task of supplying workers for construction already under way. A national shortage of such key workers as bricklayers and carpenters is already developing, and as the home-building program hits its stride, other skilled workers are going to come into short supply. That they have not done so already is because materials have held building back.

This situation has had the effect of giving USES offices a breathing spell which can be turned to good account. Its greatest service in the long range view is to take stock now, anticipate labor needs and take action to be ready to supply workers before the full force of demand strikes. Housing goals are fixed; recruitment goals will change as time goes on and materials loosen up, the housing program gets into high gear, and more nonresidential construction is

curtailed. Should manpower deficiencies occur in the months and years ahead they will be charged against the USES, just as a sufficient supply of workers will be chalked up to its credit.

2.

The transporting, processing, and packaging of food for our Country's own needs and its commitments to peoples less fortunate, is also an undertaking of giant size. Food processing and related activities have definite labor supply problems and this year their solution is vital. Despite the fact that local labor supplies will be more plentiful than during the war years, a legion of other problems typical of the harvest and processing season will call for the highest order of recruitment effort and all the incidental services it entails.

Fortunately the USES staffs will not be working in untried spheres. The problems encountered and experience gained during the "hardening" period of the war have primed it for service now.

The following pages describe the scope of our peacetime emergencies and their recruitment implications. The pattern of action cut for the USES as it recruited for war production, will need but little adjustment now. With a broadened knowledge of labor market conditions, and more extensive use of labor market information in formulating industrial plans, it has become easier to detect potential danger spots in labor supply and to head them off. It is precisely this that gives the USES its greatest opportunity for service as the Nation's manpower authority when specific recruitment tasks arise. By looking ahead, it can keep ahead of any recruitment task set before it, however tough.

SHELTER

CONSTRUCTION

In May, construction employment reached the highest point since 1943. Mixed reaction to VHP Order No. 1 complicated appraisal of the employment outlook by USES offices. In Salt Lake City, for example, trade unions estimated that one-third of their craftsmen will be idle if materials are restricted to home construction. Some unemployment was expected, for the same reason, in Joliet and Rockford, Ill. Similar reports from other localities mentioned confusion or uncertainty, and opposition by contractors committed to nonresidential projects and by union representatives of building crafts whose chief work is in industrial and commercial fields.

The acute need to channel materials into home building is generally recognized. Material shortages run practically the entire range of items needed for home construction, including finished millwork, hardware, and raw materials. Some commercial and industrial building has been able to continue by using a higher proportion of cement block instead of scarcer steel and wood.

An intensive recruitment drive for skilled manpower is necessary because of the urgency of manpower shortages. In certain of the highly skilled occupations, such as bricklayers and carpenters, the shortage has taken on Nation-wide proportions. In a few cases, attempts at recruitment have been frustrated by a lack of housing. Workers brought to the building sites left when they could find no place to live. Craftsmen tend to favor small-scale job work, especially maintenance and repair, because of opportunities for substantially higher earnings. This aggravates the shortage of skills. A lack of key skilled workers has caused near or complete shut-down of operations in a number of cases. In one of these a lack of 10 bricklayers caused a 2-month lay-off of 125 workers.

Construction workers are for the most part hired through the building trades unions, but USES local offices have been active with job listings running into the thousands, for skilled, semiskilled, and unskilled

workers. USES placements in contract construction. rose from 43,500 in March to 56,600 in April—a gain of 30 percent. Such placements constituted 12.3 per cent of all placements made in April as compared with 10.3 percent in March and 8.3 percent in February. Over 17 percent were in skilled work. This is especially significant since most skilled building workers are hired through unions. Local employ ment offices may expect an increase in demand for such workers, with requests increasingly originating from unions as well as contractors. For example, in Spokane, Wash., with all union workers employed, building trades unions called on the local USES office for additional building labor.

Another characteristic of the construction placements by USES is that half of them were World War II veterans. While employment of veterans was high throughout the country, it was especially marked in Texas, California, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania.

Extensive training opportunities are available for veterans under the GI Bill of Rights. The need for skilled craftsmen is so great, however, that on-the-job training programs will have to be expanded to catch up with the demand or to keep up with it when materials become plentiful.

Some local unions are seeking greater veteran participation in construction activities by reducing dues and waiving initiation fees.

LUMBER

The lumber industry enters its peak season with the labor supply situation the most promising in several years. Thousands of workers have been added to the industry's pay rolls since December 1945. Employ ment in March was well over March levels for the previous 2 years, and, in fact, the highest figure reached since January 1944. Additional thousands, however, are needed to man logging camps and saw. mills, as well as veneer, plywood, planing, and other finishing mills.

Job openings are most plentiful in the South, where a large part of the industry's labor shortage is concen